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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26202538">Thriving in Daylight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalinastar/pseuds/Crystalinastar'>Crystalinastar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Duke Week 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5+1 Things, Gen, Good Sibling Duke Thomas, except it's more 3+3+1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:34:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,359</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26202538</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalinastar/pseuds/Crystalinastar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Mr. Drake-Wayne?” the teacher snapped suddenly. Whispers and giggles arose, so Duke glanced up to see what his brother was doing. </p>
<p>He snorted at the sight of Tim’s head collapsed on his desk, a few snores escaping as he inhaled and exhaled. He brought out his phone as Tim muttered, “One more minute,” and took a picture.</p>
<p><i>Sweet.</i> He could trade this to Barbara as blackmail later, in exchange for her not exposing him to be the one who sent the anonymous tip about Tim’s energy drink stash to Bruce.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Three times Duke has the advantage over everyone else because he operates in the day, three times everyone else has the advantage because they operate in the night, and one time nobody has the advantage, no matter when they operate.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra Cain &amp; Duke Thomas, Tim Drake &amp; Duke Thomas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Duke Week 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902853</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>185</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Thriving in Daylight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Duke Week 2020, hell yeah! This is for day one, Day vs Night.</p>
<p>disclaimer: despite the baseball section in the middle, i know nothing about baseball. be warned.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>1.</strong>
</p>
<p>Duke settled into his seat, slinging his backpack over his chair in one smooth motion. Tim plopped down in his seat at the other side of the classroom, wide eyes suggesting he was awake and alert, but Duke knew better. Duke saw Tim apply concealer to the heavy bags under his eyes this morning.</p>
<p>And to top it all off, the Manor was out of coffee. Duke honestly just preferred hot cocoa, but Tim’s movements were sluggish without the caffeine in his system—not that anyone noticed without really looking. </p>
<p>He snapped back into attention when the teacher called his name. “Here,” he chimed, giving the teacher his best teacher’s pet smile. </p>
<p>Duke pulled out his notebook and flipped to the next blank page, pressing it flat as he carefully wrote in the date and the name of the lesson, Intro to Poetry. He doodled a sun in the margins as the teacher combatted the groans of his classmates, biting back a grin. </p>
<p>“Mr. Drake-Wayne?” the teacher snapped suddenly. Whispers and giggles arose, so Duke glanced up to see what his brother was doing. </p>
<p>He snorted at the sight of Tim’s head collapsed on his desk, a few snores escaping as he inhaled and exhaled. He brought out his phone as Tim muttered, “One more minute,” and took a picture.</p>
<p><em> Sweet</em>. He could trade this to Barbara as blackmail later, in exchange for her not exposing him to be the one who sent the anonymous tip about Tim’s energy drink stash to Bruce.</p>
<p>The teacher rolled her eyes and continued with the lessons, making a snide remark about Wayne boys, likely forgetting Duke was there. To be fair, Duke forgot he was a Wayne too, sometimes. And he wasn’t one to uphold the Wayne history of getting caught napping in class because he had crashed at four in the morning after a late patrol.</p>
<p>Duke leaned back into his chair, a small smirk on his face. Such were the benefits of operating in the day.</p>
<p>
  <strong>1.</strong>
</p>
<p>Duke’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and discretely glanced at it as the teacher lectured about figurative language.</p>
<p>“Scarecrow Attack!” the headlines screamed at him, and Duke nearly groaned. Wasn’t Scarecrow the spooky one? Couldn’t he contain the spookiness to a time when the sun <em> wasn’t </em>high in the sky? After school hours, at least?</p>
<p>He raised his hand. After waiting for a few moments, the teacher’s back still turned, he cleared his throat.</p>
<p>The teacher whirled around, her whiteboard marker surprisingly reminiscent of a blade. “Yes, Mr. Thomas?” she asked sharply. </p>
<p>Duke noticed people looking at him in his peripheral vision, and he shoved down the part of him that squirmed at being made a topic of gossip. “I’ve got a migraine, can I go to the nurse’s office?”</p>
<p>She sighed. “What is this, the third migraine this month? This month has barely started!”</p>
<p>Duke winced, giving his teacher big pleading eyes. </p>
<p>“Okay,” the teacher said after a pause. “Go. Take the hall pass.” She pointed to a garish lanyard hung up by the whiteboard.</p>
<p>Duke stood, now hyper aware of how Tim still snored away, oblivious to his struggles. Lucky him, he guessed, as two pieces of blackmail given to Barbara pretty much cancelled each other out, unless you got to her first. </p>
<p>He looped the lanyard around his neck, and let out a long exhale once the door closed behind him with a click. </p>
<p>
  <em> I’ve gotta come up with a better excuse for that.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>2.</strong>
</p>
<p>A Bats versus Supers baseball game.</p>
<p>Duke thought that sounded like some sort of imaginary world, and if you’d told him he would be taking part in it last year, he’d have laughed you out of his face. It was weirdly domestic. And while Duke did track his freshman year, his aim was <em> shit</em>. That was why he stuck to the sticks and not the batarangs—not for lack of trying on Bruce’s part, and Duke <em> was </em> getting better, but still.</p>
<p>The Supers weren’t allowed to use their powers, little necklaces of whatever color Kryptonite underneath their shirts. That didn’t give Duke any confidence when holding a bat against Karen Starr as the pitcher, who introduced herself as <em> Power Girl </em> before this started, whose grin gleamed with a hard edge.</p>
<p>Dick had grumbled on the way here that Supers had the advantage over them, with five wins to their three, and honestly, Duke was surprised they had even that much.</p>
<p>Okay. Okay, deep breaths. Duke tightened his grip on his bat, and hoped he wasn’t making an utter fool of himself through not knowing how to hold it. </p>
<p>And he realized, suddenly, just as someone yelled, “Batter up!” in a cheesy movie voice: the <em> Supers </em> weren’t allowed to use their powers. No one said anything about <em> him</em>.</p>
<p>In the split second before Karen launched the ball towards Duke, he memorized where the tiny shining golden ball of light was, and swung there. </p>
<p>
  <em> Crack! </em>
</p>
<p>Duke’s eyes tracked the ball’s path in the air, (not) cheating for a moment to see how far it would go. Nodding to himself, he dropped the bat and <em> ran like hell</em>. And this, this he could do.</p>
<p>He panted as he made it to first base, to second, to third, and pushing himself with an extra burst of energy, he made it to home base. </p>
<p>The Bats cheered, as Superman—<em> Superman </em>—walked over and patted Duke on the back in the well-done kind of way. He couldn’t help the grin from spreading across his face. </p>
<p>After the game (which the Bats win, with a few more home runs and technically not cheating from Duke), they have a <em> picnic</em>. A picnic. Duke wasn’t even sure if the Supers had to eat, or if their deal was like plants with the sun and photosynthesis. </p>
<p>He sat down at the teens table—it was important to note the young adult table was to the left of them, the middle-aged adult table was behind them, and Damian, Jon, and Chris comprised the little kids table over there. The teens table was him, Tim, Steph, Harper and Kon-El aka Superboy I.</p>
<p>Kon snickered to Tim. “See? One of you has a sleep schedule. It pays off to not be falling asleep as you cross home base.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, well,” Duke said, not one to be left out in a conversation about himself, “guess I’m unique like that.” He grinned and his chest swelled with pride. “I mean, come on, there were five Robins. You guys couldn’t think of <em> anything </em> more original? Any other birds?”</p>
<p>
  <b>2.</b>
</p>
<p>Tim just rolled his eyes, and Steph cackled. “Yeah, says the We Are Robin kid. What?” she mocked. “You guys couldn’t think of any other birds?”</p>
<p>Harper just smirked quietly, sipping at her lemonade, and as Bluebird, Duke was pretty sure she had the right to. </p>
<p>He shrugged, taking a bite of his burger. “Yeah, but consider: the whole point of that was legacy. And we scrapped the R’s towards the end, thank you very much.”</p>
<p>“Listen, Daisy Duke,” Tim started, Duke sighing at the nickname, “we may be constantly tired, but when are high school students not? Please, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Dick and Jason get into a vicious argument about who can dance to Toxic better, on patrol, loud and clear through the comms.”</p>
<p>“It’s Dick,” Steph chirped, and Duke saw that one coming from a mile away. “You should have <em> seen </em>Bruce’s face.”</p>
<p>Duke could imagine it—a father’s amusement and exasperation both battling it out on Batman’s stony gaze. That would be hilarious, he admitted to himself.</p>
<p>A sharp ache formed in his chest, at not being part of the nightly patrols. He still stood by the benefits of his, always, but he wondered what it might be like to have that sense of togetherness when patrolling. Day patrols were just him, and one guy could only do so much. </p>
<p>He shook his head. He liked sleep. He was trying to earn back all the sleep he had lost in his We Are Robin days, bit by bit. He was fine doing day patrols.</p>
<p>Still, he wondered.</p>
<p>
  <b>3.</b>
</p>
<p>Gotham was a hellhole, but it was usually a hellhole of below seventy degrees. Sometimes, it was a hellhole of below zero. Duke was used to that.</p>
<p>He was not ready for the hellhole with sweltering heat of ninety-fucking-seven degrees, with sweat dripping down his face in his full body suit. Maybe Dick and Jason were onto something with the scaley underwear. </p>
<p>Pros of summer: no school means longer patrols.</p>
<p>Cons of summer: <em> fuck you, sun</em>.</p>
<p>Seriously, he was all for a little warmth, but this was too much. </p>
<p>Duke brought his motorcycle to a stop, ducking into a shadowed alleyway. He panted and wiped as much sweat he could off his face. </p>
<p>His communicator vibrated. Duke groaned, but held it up anyways. “This is Signal,” he spoke into it. </p>
<p>“Signal,” said a silvery smooth voice that wasn’t anyone he knew. None of the Bats, at least. He sat up, straightening his back. “This is Wonder Woman.” Wait, wait, backtrack. Holy shit. <em> Wonder Woman</em>?</p>
<p>“Yes, ma’am?” he asked. “What do you need?”</p>
<p>“Giganta is headed for downtown Gotham. I’ll need you there for backup and for civilian evacuation.”</p>
<p>His jaw dropped. He was going to be backup for <em> Wonder Woman</em>? Coolest day of his life. </p>
<p>“On my way there, ma’am.”</p>
<p>The Bats thrived in the night, but y’know what? He was being called by Wonder Woman. He got to <em> assist </em> Wonder Woman. So worth it.</p>
<p>
  <b>3.</b>
</p>
<p>The following fight with Giganta was thrilling, but brief. Duke had forgotten to dodge <em> one hit </em> in his haste, so Wonder Woman carried him home in her arms. (Holy <em> shit</em>.)</p>
<p>As he rested in the Batcave’s med bay, he craned his neck to hear pre-patrol chatter. </p>
<p>“Ughhhhhh, I hate this case,” a voice he recognized as Steph complained. “I hate Zsasz. So, so creepy. Always throws me off when I fight him.”</p>
<p>“Please,” Jason scoffed. “You think you have it bad? I’m doing some investigation over at <em> Black Mask’s </em> club. The guy’s a sleaze and a control freak, I always ruin my cover because I want to beat him up.”</p>
<p>Steph paused. “Yeah, that’s fair. I want to beat him up, too. Tim’s working the Zsasz case with me, so it’s not that terrible, but he’s also doing <em> patrol </em> patrol tonight with Cass and Bruce.”</p>
<p>Duke blinked. That was… a <em> lot </em> to deal with. Day patrol was usually him working a case once per week, maybe two if he was lucky. And the rest of it was just patrol. The Giganta situation today was fun because nothing that exciting ever really happened during the day.</p>
<p>Of course. This was Gotham. They had an aesthetic to stick to, thus most crimes happening at night. Duke used to be more of a night guy himself, when he was with the Robins, and there was no shortage of crimes to stop then.</p>
<p>What he was doing was important, no doubt. Crimes didn’t flat out <em> stop </em> when the sun rose. But…</p>
<p>His fingers drummed against the side of the gurney. </p>
<p><em> What if</em>, his mind murmured like always.</p>
<p>And like always, Duke pushed the worries down. He could ask about taking on more cases later.</p>
<p>
  <b>+1</b>
</p>
<p>“You want to talk about stupid and reckless?” Barbara spat out, her eyes narrowing. She wheeled her chair forwards. “Let’s talk about stupid and reckless.”</p>
<p>Duke leaned over towards Tim. “Bruce fucked up,” he muttered.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Tim responded, “he tends to do that.”</p>
<p>“I sure as shit may not be getting much sleep, but Bruce? You were on patrol until five in the morning yesterday. You then slept for less than an hour and drove to work at six.” Barbara pointed a finger at Bruce, but it might as well have been a knife. “So don’t you get on my back about this.”</p>
<p>Damian turned towards Bruce, his eyebrows furrowing. “Father, you told me you were retiring for the night at one.”</p>
<p>“Speaking of,” Barbara said, drawing out her words. “Your kids. I won’t include Steph and Harper, they’re not under your care, but <em> all of you </em> are stupid and reckless. Case in point, Dick? Last week? Got about twenty total hours of sleep, and proceeded to fall asleep on a stakeout. I’m not saying the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but I’m also <em> not </em> saying that.”</p>
<p>Duke winced. He was tired enough occasionally coming out for night patrol and working later in the night on extra cases he took on. </p>
<p>Cass stepped forward to the other side of Duke. He shared a knowing glance with her.</p>
<p>“Cass,” Barbara called out, and Cass nodded, “is doing better in the sleep department than most of you, but don’t think for a second that I haven’t noticed how she fights entire warehouses full of goons on her own. Just because she’s the best fighter doesn’t mean she can wear herself out like that.”</p>
<p>“Hey, sis?” he whispered. “I’m not busy most nights. If you ever need me…”</p>
<p>Cass looked at him straight in the eyes and smiled in acknowledgement. </p>
<p>Barbara rattled off a few more names and hours of sleep lost, work taken on, and Duke relaxed as she skipped from Tim straight to Damian. Barbara was more nocturnal, she did her work during the night, right? No constant surveillance on him. </p>
<p>His eyes widened comically when Barbara said, “Duke.”</p>
<p>He held up his hands. “I’ve been getting sleep!”</p>
<p>“You’re also skipping class for minor crimes, you rely on your powers a tad too much in a fight, and while your grades are fine, you turn in homework irregularly. Despite this, you take on more cases instead of training and doing schoolwork. You jump into fights unprepared more often than not, and you’re liable to do dangerous stunts where you only barely avoid injuries.”</p>
<p>Barbara leveled her glare towards Duke. “Were you saying something?”</p>
<p>Duke lowered his hands and shook his head.</p>
<p>Lesson learned: nothing could get in the way of an angry, all-seeing Oracle, and especially not patrol schedules.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>feel free to chat me up about duke or anything dc on my <a href="https://crystalinastar.tumblr.com">tumblr</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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